◀ Anchor ▶
If Korea’s national messenger is ‘KakaoTalk’, Japan has ‘Line’, right?
The Japanese government is pressuring Naver’s parent company to sell its shares under the pretext of information leaks.
Security issues spill over into management rights issues.
Reporter Lee Jeong-eun covered the story.
◀ Report ▶
A ‘line’ messenger used by 96 million Japanese.
Last year, 510,000 members’ personal information was leaked through hacking.
At the time, the Japanese government demanded that Yahoo Line Japan strengthen its security and separate its system from its parent company, Naver.
[마쓰모토 다케아키/일본 총무상]
“If no improvement is seen and the same issue arises, we intend to supervise with the possibility of implementing stronger measures.”
However, the security issue unexpectedly turns into a management issue.
The Japanese government, which has held two rounds of administrative guidelines, is pushing for the sale of Naver shares, in other words, ‘rebalancing the shares between Naver and Line Yahoo.’
Line Yahoo’s main shareholder is the holding company ‘A Holdings’.
A Holdings shares are each half owned by Naver and Softbank Japan.
If even a small share of Naver is transferred to Softbank, Line Yahoo’s management rights will also be transferred.
It is unusual for the government to put pressure on the issuance of shares in foreign companies, and experts say this is because the competition for data hegemony is so fierce.
The Japanese government is so active that it recently asked Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission if it could cooperate with investigations related to hacking.
[위정현/중앙대 가상융합대학 교수]
“Each country makes every effort to protect its own platform. I think efforts need to be made at the government level, especially at the diplomatic level, to ensure that Korean companies are not treated unfairly.”
The Ministry of Science and Technology only states its basic position, saying, “We respect and cooperate with Naver’s position,” and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states, “There should be no discriminatory measures in against our companies.”
This is Lee Jeong-eun from MBC News.
Video Editing: Moon Myeong-bae
#line #managers #transfer #Japan
